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Farm Management, Workshop

Our Resilient Farming Business, New AWDT programme

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The Agri-Women’s Development Trust is introducing theirlatest programme, Our Resilient Farming Business. Supported by the Ministry for Primary Industries, this free programme will support farming New Zealanders to cultivate the financial and personal resilience needed to thrive in the face of accelerating change. 

Starting with six pilots across the country in June-July 2021, farmers will leave the programme with an action plan and the confidence to manage uncertainty and seize opportunity.  ‘Our Resilient Farming Business: Pilot’ programmes will take place in: 

  Pilot Group Sector Dates Location
1 Farming women Sheep, Beef, Dairy Module 1: 30/6/2021

Module 2: 28/7/2021

 Winton 
2 Farming partnerships (women and/or men) Sheep, Beef, Dairy Module 1: 1/7/2021

Module 2: 29/7/2021

 Balclutha
3 Farming women

 

 Sheep, Beef, Dairy Module 1: 7/7/2021

Module 2: 4/8/2021

 Ashburton
4 Farming partnerships (women and/or men) Sheep, Beef, Dairy Module 1: 8/7/2021

Module 2: 5/8/2021

 Amberley
5 Pan-sector partnerships

(women and/or men)

 Sheep, Beef, Dairy, Hort, Arable Module 1: 7/7/2021

Module 2: 4/8/2021

 Feilding
6 Pan-sector partnerships

(women and/or men)

 Sheep, Beef, Dairy, Hort, Arable Module1: 8/7/2021

Module 2: 5/8/2021

 Hastings

Register Here for an ‘Our Resilient Farming Business: Pilot’ programme 

Who is the ‘Our Resilient Farming Business: Pilot’ programme for?

Farming business owners and managers interested in building their financial and personal adaptability in changing environments. Participants must have: 

  • Financial responsibility for a farming business (or farming business unit)
  • An existing budget 
  • The ability to create and monitor a budget
  • The ability to read financial accounts (including a balance sheet and a profit and loss statement)

What are the outcomes for participants?

Through new skills, connections and planning, the programme will support farmers to feel more confident in their ability to deal with uncertainty and risk. This outcome is the result of developing: 

  • An open and positive mindset that embraces change 
  • A clear picture of what a resilient farming business looks like 
  • Simple frameworks that build personal and financial resilience 
  • An understanding of how lenders assess and measure financial resilience
  • A measure of the financial resiliency of your business
  • Your farming business resiliency action plan (reviewed with other farmers)
  • An understanding of how your personal/team resilience attributes impact your decision-making
  • Access to tools and support networks that will help build resilience 

What is the format of the ‘Our Resilient Farming Business: Pilot’ programme

The programme pilots consist of two face-to-face full day modules, one month apart. The programme also includes self-directed pre-module and inter-module work to help participants get the most out of the programme – including developing a personal and business resilience action plan to share with the group during module two.  

What should I expect from involvement in a pilot programme?  

As a pilot programme, you will be supporting AWDT to test this first-iteration alongside other farmers and growers in your group. The focus is on designing and delivering the best quality programme and your feedback on what works well and what needs improvement, is critical. 

How much does the programme cost? 

Thanks to support from the Ministry for Primary Industries, ‘Our Resilient Farming Business: Pilot’ programmes are free to attend. 

Register Here for an ‘Our Resilient Farming Business: Pilot’ programme

For more information, visit the AWDT webpage, call us on +64 6 370 2568 or reply with any questions.

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Data Analytics, Fertiliser, Innovation, New Crops, Nutrients, Orchard, Orcharding, Plant Health, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Robotics, Sensing, Soil, Vegetables, viticulture, Water, Weeds

LandWISE 2021: Working Smarter

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Havelock North, 19-20 May 2021

Thanks to everyone who made LandWISE 21 such a successful Conference!

We were a touch nervous after Covid-cancelling last year, but so heartened when our sponsors jumped on-board, and delgetaes began registering earlier than usual. Perhaps there was a vacuum . . .
The speakers’ presentations are summarised in a series of blog posts, many with a short sound clip. The time put in to create the presentations is clearly huge, it is a very large gift each one makes. Thanks each and every one of you!

Topics covered:

  • Best Practice and Beyond
  • Future Proofing Vegetable Production
  • Carbon and Water
  • Smart Technologies for Permanent Crops
  • Herbicide Resistance Management
  • Agritech in NZ and Hawke’s Bay

Jump to the Conference Page for links to presentations

Agronomy, Conference, Fertiliser, Innovation, Nutrients, Research

Change on the Horizon – Jamie Blennerhassett

Dr Jamie Blennerhassett is opening LandWISE 2021 asking the questions,
“What are the future challenges to the primary industry and where might they come from?”

Jamie looked at the opportunity to get ahead of those challenges so that we not only survive as an industry but thrive.

Future environmental trends, regulations, technology threats and opportunities

Anyone with a passing interest in the news will see daily items covering the impending catastrophe of climate change and the ongoing decline of our freshwater resources. Alongside these stories, you will also likely see reporting on regulatory reform introduced to deal with these challenges as well as the resultant dissatisfaction from farmers at the scale and pace of those regulatory changes.

Should any of this have been a surprise? In short the answer is no. We have been aware of declining water quality and a changing climate from human caused greenhouse gas emissions for well over 20 years, as firstly scientists, then environmentalists and lastly the wider public sounded alarm bells and raised concerns around human caused impacts on the environment. The resulting outcome in the shape of regulatory change was inevitable as the voice of the people took effect.

So as we sit here now and reflect on the fact that the regulatory response was entirely predictable by following the science and the subsequent consumer/community desires, what are the next issues that will drive regulatory change and how do we get out in front of the change?

Topics such as indigenous biodiversity and water use efficiency are obvious places to start as they gain increasing attention from scientists and environmentalists alike. While many consumer trends come and go, particularly around things like fashion and diets, trends linked to the environment and sustainability have been consistent and growing for well over 20 years and usually follow the science. 

By looking to the science, we likely allow ourselves an early insight into the next consumer trends and a chance to get ahead of the curve in the premium end of the market by setting up our farming systems to solve for these problems. Not only will this allow us to win in the market place, it will likely have us well placed for the next wave of regulatory change that will invariably follow shortly behind those consumer demands as they then turn into the voice of the people at the ballot box.

Listen to a Summary SoundClip here:

Jamie is the Innovation Leader at Ballance AgriNutrients. He has 20 years’ experience in the fertiliser industry across a range of leadership roles from science and new product development to sales management.

Jamie has a PhD in soil science from Massey University and has a passion for finding an optimum balance between the need for efficient food production and protecting our natural environment.

Ballance AgriNutrients is a proud, and longstanding sponsor of the LandWISE Conference, the LandWISE MicroFarm and our “Future Proofing Vegetable Production” project.

AgTech, Conference, Data Analytics, Precision Agriculture

Data Farming – Tim Neale

Measurable Value from Spatial Data and Precision Agriculture

Tim Neale is Managing Director at Datafarming, where he leads a  team of spatial data experts, agronomy consultants, software developers and field technicians are closely aligned to agronomists and the agriculture industry in Australia and New Zealand.

Based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Tim is well known to many LandWISE members. He was ICT Entrepreneur of the Year 2019, and Australian Rural Consultant of the Year 2018.

Tim will describe the various tools in development and available via the DataFarming Platform.  He proudly describes DataFarming as Australia’s most popular precision ag software, a claim he can well justify. 15 years in the making, DataFarming continues to develop web mapping applications for Digital Agronomy and Agri-Intelligence. Their aspirational aim is to have 50% of agronomists using spatial data. DataFarming is also developing tools for machine learning using spatial data to deliver deep insights into ag production.

See www.datafarming.com.au

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Cover crops, Drainage, Fertiliser, Innovation, LandWISE People, Nutrients, Projects, Soil, Vegetables

Growers Making Changes – Jay Clarke

Jay Clarke, Director of Woodhaven Gardens joined us at LandWISE 21 to discuss changes that have been made on their vegetable growing farm.

Woodhaven grows a diverse range of 23 vegetable crops in Horowhenua. Operating on more than 1000ha their annual production comprises 10% of the national fresh leafy greens supply for New Zealand.

Woodhaven Gardens has been working hard to meet and exceed environmental targets in their region. They have sought help from the experts, collaborated within their community, and thoroughly reviewed their processes on-farm to achieve improved environmental outcomes. Some examples include considerable reductions in fertiliser use, reduced soil and nutrient losses, contribution of land and resources for trials, and community engagement supporting other vegetable growers with environmental management.

Jay urges growers to avoid “ticking the compliance boxes”. AS well as providing 220-250 full-time jobs, Woodhaven Gardens consults with their community, iwi and regulators to understand their needs and wants. By meeting these community aspirations, Jay believes Woodhaven Gardens will stay ahead of regulation. 

Listen to a Summary SoundClip here:

Woodhaven Gardens was named the Regional Supreme Winner at the Horizons Ballance Farm Environment Awards in April 2020. This award recognised their significant efforts to improve their efficiency on-farm and the environmental outcomes of their land management practices. Judges commented that “new technology is being integrated to lower nutrient output” and that “the Clarke’s are making changes to their business to improve water quality”.

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Cover crops, Drainage, Fertiliser, Nutrients, Projects, Soil, Vegetables, Water

Future Proofing Vegetable Production – Dan Bloomer

Dan Bloomer is LandWISE Manager and a consultant working with and between farmers, scientists and regulators. He likes to be “linking thinking from the farm out”.

Through the MPI SFF project, “Future Proofing Vegetable Production”, Dan, Georgia O’Brien and Luke Posthuma worked with growers to identify ways to minimise nitrate leaching from vegetable production areas.

In this LandWISE 21 Conference presentation, Dan will describe the four strands they set out to address: Precision Prescription, Precision Application, Maximum Retention and Nutrient Mitigation, and the processes for achievement they employed.

The LandWISE team has observed a significant shift in grower thinking and practice. This came when growers were supported with easy to access and use tools and one-on-one coaching.

Conference, Nutrients, Research, Water

Nitrogen Attenuation – Stephen Collins

Stephen Collins is a groundwater scientist for Horizons Regional Council where his job involves managing the monitoring and research aspects of the region’s groundwater resources. A particular research interest of his is understanding land use effects on water quality, which has culminated into him undertaking a PhD part-time.

Stephen’s research is on refining estimates of subsurface nitrogen attenuation. At LandWISE 2021, he discussed nitrogen attenuation and how more accurate predictions of it can help improve overall catchment management.

Abstract:

Subsurface nitrogen attenuation – a key unknown in modelling catchment-scale water quality scenarios

Collins, S.,1, 2 Singh, R.,1 Horne, D.1 & Roygard, J.2

1Massey University, Farmed Landscapes Research Centre (FLRC), Palmerston North

2Horizons Regional Council (HRC), Palmerston North

Subsurface nitrogen attenuation is a measure of how much nitrogen is removed in the subsurface environment below the farm root zone, varying from very low rates in some places, to very high rates elsewhere. In other words, some land units appear more resilient in dealing with nitrogen losses compared to others.

An effective understanding of where and when subsurface nitrogen attenuation occurs, and by how much, can have a significant impact on the way nitrogen losses to waterways are modelled and managed in a catchment, especially when water quality improvements are needed.

Where water quality improvements are required, catchment-scale water quality scenarios need to be developed that take account of attenuation dynamics. However, subsurface nitrogen attenuation appears to be spatially variable across different hydrogeological settings, leading to uncertainty in the modelling of those scenarios. Therefore, a robust method of predicting the spatial variability, and potential rate, of subsurface nitrogen attenuation across different hydrogeological settings in agricultural catchments is needed.

The primary nitrogen attenuation pathway in subsurface environments is denitrification, a microbially-facilitated biogeochemical process that reduces nitrate into predominantly ‘benign’ di-nitrogen gas. This process is governed by a range of physical, chemical and biological characteristics that influence ‘reduction-oxidation’ (redox) conditions in hydrogeological settings. Subsurface redox conditions can broadly be described as either reduced (where dissolved oxygen is low) or oxidised (where dissolved oxygen is abundant). Denitrification mainly occurs in reduced conditions.

Though the science of subsurface denitrification processes is being increasingly studied and better understood, the challenge yet remains to achieve a robust method of predicting the spatial variability, and potential rate, of subsurface nitrogen attenuation across different hydrogeological settings.

Direct measurements of denitrification is practically complex and resource intensive, and therefore not easily measurable over large spatial scales. However, the opportunity to meet this challenge potentially comes from the ability to use easily measurable groundwater quality parameters to assess groundwater redox conditions as a suitable proxy for nitrogen attenuation in subsurface environments. Further, groundwater redox conditions show a strong relationship with some landscape attributes such as soil drainage, permeability, rock type and soil texture.

To aid this research, Massey FLRC and HRC are collaboratively investigating how to refine, measure and account for subsurface nitrogen attenuation in New Zealand landscapes to inform modelling of catchment-scale water quality scenarios.

Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Fertiliser, Nutrients, Projects, Research, Soil, Vegetables

Making the Right Fertiliser Decision – Luke Posthuma

LandWISE Precision Agronomist, Luke Posthuma has lead our Future Proofing Vegetable Production project since arriving in 2019. He established and owns GrowMaps, a precision mapping company and has a passion for farming and horticulture.

Through the SFF Future Proofing Vegetable Production project, we have seen time and again that fertiliser savings can be made by applying the right rate of nitrogen fertiliser based on cropping goals and soil test values.

Last summer’s sweetcorn trials demonstrated that there was little value in switching to more ‘efficient’ forms of nitrogen where the application rate is already higher than required. Following on from last year’s work, this summer we set up 12 sweetcorn and 6 field tomato split-paddock trials in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay to test two grower tools. We compared current grower fertiliser practice with a side-dressing rate determined using either the FAR Nitrate Quick Test Calculator or the HortNZ Nutrient Management Guidelines for Vegetable Crops.

Using the grower’s expected yield for a given planting, a pre-plant soil test with a potentially available N result and a Nitrate Quick test soil test collected to 90cm just prior to side-dressing, we found growers could often* (please note – not always) get away with significantly less nitrogen than they expected to apply. 

For growers facing continued environmental pressure, soil testing is a tool that can be used to justify nutrient applications. A nitrate quick test costs less than $2 plus the time taken to collect the soil sample. The Nitrate Quick Test will show whether more or less fertiliser is required, and if your current fertiliser plan is about correct.

Taking soil tests at harvest, we found that by using less nitrogen at side-dressing, we had also reduced the nitrogen in the soil profile at harvest. Minimising excess nitrogen left in the soil after harvest will reduce over-winter nitrogen leaching from a cropping paddock.

Deep Soil Sampling for Nitrate
Deep Soil Sampling for Nitrate

We want to apply sufficient nitrogen to maximise crop yield without leaving significant quantities in the soil after the crop is harvested. Following good practice means applying the right rate of fertiliser for each of your crops. The right rate will vary based on the soil test results and your expected yields.

Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:

Agronomy, Conference, Cover crops, Fertiliser, MicroFarm, Nutrients, Orcharding, Plant Health, Research, Soil, Tillage, Vegetables, Water

Growing Soil Carbon – Phil Schofield

Phillip Schofield is a soil scientist and rural professional, working with growers and farmers, helping them improve soil function and hence profit.

He holds a B Ag Sci (hons) and a PhD, is a Certified Nutrient Management Advisor and Certified Green House Gas Advisor. Phil is a founding Board Member of the HB Future Farming Charitable Trust.

Phil provides farmers and growers with soil health advice and adapt production systems to improve farm performance and profitability in the face of increasing compliance and regulation.   

At LandWISE 21, he asked: Why is soil carbon important? How might we increase it?

Atmospheric CO2 is a greenhouse gas, responsible for global warming. The IPCC reports that soil holds two to three times as much carbon as the atmosphere, so the 4.5 billion ha of pastures and croplands are an immense source or sink.

Plants fix carbon dioxide by photosynthesis, and this provides a mechanism to move CO2 from the atmosphere to the soil. Human activities release about 9 GT C/yr. so increasing soil carbon by 0.4% would account for much of our emissions. It would also improve soil health and set us up better for climate change. Atmospheric CO2 can be sequestered. Plants exude 30% of their sugars through their roots, providing energy and raw materials for synthesis by other organisms.

Soils that contain more carbon have more humus to hold particles together, provide a better environment for root growth, hold more nutrients and hold more water. However, many of our current practices degrade soil. Regenerative practices address soil health by minimising disturbance, keeping the soil covered, always keeping living roots in the soil, increasing plant diversity and introducing grazing animals.

The HB Future Farming Trust aims to establish a series of trials partnering with industry, HBRC, CRIs and MPI. One set is a replicated trial proposed for the LandWISE MicroFarm, with further demonstration trials on orchards, vineyards, and arable and vegetable properties.

Trial sites will be heavily monitored, benchmarking soil physical, chemical and biological properties, nutrient and GHG budgets, water, energy and financial analyses of the enterprises.

Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:

events, Irrigation, LandWISE People, Water

Water Security More than Dams – Tom Skerman

Tom Skerman is a self-described “jack of all trades, master of none” who has relished the opportunity to view the primary sector from a number of different viewpoints.

At LandWISE 2021: Working Smarter, Tom will take the topic, Water Security: more than just dams.

In addition to farming business interests he has practised Law and worked as a commercial development manager for the Maori Trustee, Te Tumu Paeroa, identifying, analysing and executing commercial opportunities for owners of Maori freehold land.

Tom is an investor in a Waikato sheep and beef farming syndicate, a director and shareholder of farm financial software company Figured, an independent director of a foreign-owned NZ forestry and commercial property company and was previously the independent Chair of a pipfruit investment syndicate in the Esk Valley.

In 2016 Tom received a Nuffield Scholarship which, after several months of international travel focussed exclusively on the world of agriculture, culminated in his report “Agribusiness Governance – Finding the Green Zone.”

Tom joined Hawke’s Bay Regional Council in 2013 to work with the Ruataniwha Water Storage Project giving him a front-row seat to the environmental issues and tensions challenging the primary sector. In 2017 he was appointed to the executive team as Group Manager Strategic Planning, which includes responsibility for progressing Hawke’s Bay’s policy and regulatory framework for natural resource management, including all things freshwater.

Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here: